Use of videoconferencing is becoming more and more common. Recently, immersive videoconferencing systems, also called telepresence systems have become available. A telepresence system provides for a high-quality visual and audio conferencing experience that surpasses typical videoconferencing systems. Through a telepresence system, users may experience lifelike, fully proportional (or nearly fully proportional) images in a high definition (HD) virtual table environment. The HD virtual table environment, created by a telepresence system, may help to develop an in-person feel to a visual conference. The in-person feel may be developed not only by near life-sized proportional images, but also by the exceptional eye contact, gaze perspective and location specific sound. The eye gaze may be achieved through the positioning and aligning of the users, the cameras and the display monitors.
One aspect of a videoconferencing system, e.g., a telepresence system is the proper lighting of the participants. Prior art telepresence systems are known to use a light source shining light towards a shroud-like reflector that has a curved surface designed to reflect the light from the light source onto the participants in a desirable way. The use of the curved surface causes the reflector structure to take up a lot of space, and to appear quite massive.